Inside the reactor core of one of North Korea's nuclear plants (Source: AP)

Many scientists are discounting that the secretive dictatorship made a true breakthrough

A
mystery is emerging on the Korean peninsula. The nation of
North Korea, which has long been suspected of developing
nuclear weapons, announced on May 12 that it had achieved
clean nuclear fusion and was ready to began rolling out
virtually free power. The claim did not receive that much
serious attention because it was simply so unbelievable.

Now
the mystery has deepened, with the South Korean government scientists
revealing that they detected abnormal
levels of radioactive xenon gas -- eight times above the
normal background level -- only two days after the fusion
announcement.

It seems highly unlikely that the fusion
reaction occurred as North Korea claims as fission typically produces
large isotopes, while fusion uses small atoms like deuterium (a
hydrogen isotope). Granted, many scientists have theorized that
fission can be tied to fusion to create
hybrid reactors and such reactors would likely
be capable of producing heavy isotopes.

Professor David Hinde,
who is the department head of nuclear physics at The Australian
National University says the release is more likely to have come from
a traditional fission device. He states, "It would have to
be man-generated unless one came up with some very unusual
alternative scenario. The lifetime of those radioactive xenon
isotopes, they're not terribly long. So it could not be anything that
came naturally, I would say. Heavy xenon isotopes could be a
signature of a fission device of some kind."

The easiest
explanation would be that North Korea conducted a nuclear weapons
test. It revealed in 2008 that it has several
nuclear weapons stockpiled. However, such a test would have
created seismic activity and South Korean officials detected no
corresponding seismic events.

Xenon is colorless, odorless,
and largely inert noble gas thats found in minute levels in the
atmosphere. The noble gases xenon and krypton are typically
used to detect nuclear activity. The levels of gas detected by
South Korea are a clear marker of nuclear activity, but do not pose a
health risk to citizens.

North Korea did conduct
nuclear weapons tests in 2006, which were detected. It received
international condemnation for these tests and UN sanctions.

I like to think that the stock market is going up and I'm making a lot of money but that won't make it true.

Take what you get IMHO. They produce the content and we consume it in some sort of equilibrium. I don't really see the need for constant pestering if the site is able to continue to attract. It isn't difficult understand the nature of the situation...

That said these comments, and my own reply, don't really need a lot of attention. Perhaps they actually make reading the posts a lot less fun.

I can appreciate that you don't particularly care. That's fine. But the simple fact remains that eluded and alluded have completely different meanings.

The irony eludes you, that you alluded to the acceptability of modern illiteracy, and in fact defended it. Now if we could just get those silly teachers to stop pestering students with all that learning, then we'd all be in equilibrium. You're right, it doesn't take any thought at all to understand the nature of the situation.

Most likely the reason you are seeing errors like alluded, and eluded is because of Dragon.

A lot of tech editors dictate via Dragon, and it will sometimes drop the wrong word in.

Then, the paragraph is ran through a digital spell and grammar check system. The sentence makes sense with either verb as far as grammar goes, but doesn't make sense in context to the story and actual targeted meaning.

With the amount of blogs, and authors posting on Daily Tech, an actual human editor would probably miss more things than the software that accomplishes the same thing, far cheaper, and quicker.

Sorry, but if Jason Dick has the balls to nick pick comments by other members, then we should be glad to nick pick his poor excuse of what's called journalism.

I'm one for disregarding grammar and misspellings, given they are not severe, on the net but when the author is calling his work "journalism" and "news" instead of "blog" and calling out his members minor errors, then I say it's time to fight back and give him what he deserves :)

Much as I hate to admit it, I believe Jason's use of the word "elude" was correct. Fear not however, Jason's superb writing skills are always front and center:

"...and was ready to begin rolling out virtually free power."

"Xenon is a colorless, odorless, and largely inert noble gas..."

His sloppy English is however no match for his usual trashy writing style, which is long on hype and short on facts. He never lets that get in his way, though. Go Jason! Don't let your moral disabilities stop you!